WWE Tables, Ladders and Chairs Recap

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You'll never believe who won at this first ever WWE gimmick PPV.

By Matt Fowler & Dan Iverson

Most of the stuff that we said about the Hell in a Cell PPV from a few months back still applies here. If you were looking for a death-defying display of dangerous athleticism, then you might want to head back a decade and check out the TLC matches of yore. This was a safe and sleepy PPV that wasn't without a few surprises. A few of the winners might shock you a bit, but that's only because we tend to all fall into a state of wonderment whenever something different happens in the WWE. Let's check in on the ultra scientific, only slightly fallible, OPPOSITE MOMENTUM CHART from our TLC Preview piece.

Fowler: The way the WWE works now, the framework of their typical match simply does not allow for greatness. Christian got legitimately busted open in the first few minutes of the match and the WWE literally crushed the momentum AND the believability of this match by having a guy come down to clean up the blood. To glue Christian up. During this time, at least two minutes, Shelton did NOT climb up a ladder and get the belt. He just stood by and watched the doctor. The audience was booing. They chanted "we want blood." There were some nice spots later on (some blown ones too) but at this point, the match was totally soured. Essentially there was an unofficial rotten "time out" called because of the WWE's PG rating and it totally f***ed the whole thing up. I'm not saying that this match was all-together terrible, but it definitely was not allowed to succeed. This was not a contest that demonstrated the greatness of these two competitors. There were just too many moments when the guys could have actually grabbed the title and won, but they made their spots too obvious.

Rating: 5/10

Iverson: Worst match of the night. You read that right, worst match of the night. Like many of you I have been reading other journalists' thoughts about his match, and have been seeing positive reviews roll in so far… I have no idea what they were watching, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't the same thing I saw. What I saw here was two experienced and athletic competitors botching moves, calling spots, spending more time setting up spots with less payoff than their set-up would have led you to believe, and a general lack of built momentum to carry a twenty minute match. Speaking of momentum, they need to stop IMMEDIATELY with fixing up a bleeding competitor. The match had just started and already built some decent momentum when Christian started bleeding and the EMTs rushed out and patched him up while Shelton nonsensically stood by and waited… instead of climbing a ladder to grab the belt. Plus to make matters worse, after the clean up, Benjamin then went for a high risk maneuver which slowed the match down again (which would have been the opportune time to patch Christian up BTW). The match never really recovered from this, and only really left the impression of Christian obviously talking to Shelton calling spots for the rest of the match. It was sloppy, it was unorganized, the new spots didn't make any sense, and the old spots took so long to set-up that the suspension of disbelief was completely gone. This was an embarrassing match from two talented guys, and anybody who says otherwise either doesn't understand the sport or is trying to sell you something.

Rating: 3.5/10

Drew McIntyre defeated John Morrison to become the new Intercontinental Champion

Fowler: Can I say it? Okay, I'll say it. This match was better than the Ladder Match. Was it a great match? Well...

It was what it was. A standard WWE singles match. But look. McIntyre did a suplex! A SUPLEX! He now officially has a third move! I could really do without Cole calling every single match as the greatest match he's ever seen. Of course, I could do without Michael Cole, well, exhaling. But these matches are really tame and really uninspiring. And McIntyre essentially won with an eye poke. An eye poke that he needed to do behind the ref's back for some reason. That's what it took to take down Morrison. At least on Smackdown they sold McIntyre's win on the fact that he rammed Morrison's head into the metal ring frame. So now, on the actual Pay Per View, Morrison loses to less? TO LESS? It essentially took less to beat Morrison at TLC than on Smackdown. I'm in a room now, with Bozon, George and Iverson, who are all furiously making plans to never ever watch WWE programming again.

Rating: 5/10

Iverson: If you read our preview for the PPV, then you know that neither Fowler nor myself were particularly looking forward to this match. Still, as a fan of pro wrestling I am always willing to watch newcomers work hard to put on a good match. This optimistic attitude is usually left with a completely pessimistic dismissal of these wrestlers for the rest of their tenure with a company. This match was just that. I haven't been a fan of McIntyre at all, and when given more time in the ring and a chance to really shine against a competent opponent what we were left with was a match that featured five moves from the undeserving victor (seriously, we counted). While I applaud the WWE's attempt at pushing young blood in a company, I question their choices for who they give their pushes to. McIntyre is a waste of space as far as wrestling goes, and like many before him (i.e. Chris Masters) he is being given a larger spotlight than those that have proved themselves in the indie scene, in their farm league and already on their program. Drew McIntyre doesn't deserve the intercontinental title, he doesn't deserve Vince McMahon's push, and he doesn't deserve to be wasting our time (and money) on television week in and week out.

Fowler: Okay. Seriously. There was nothing really wrong with this match. These two gals went out there and did their thing. No real botches. Whether you're interested in this feud, or any Diva feud for that matter, this match was still solid enough. Again, this match might have been less infuriating than the two that came before it. I guess with this win for McCool, evil got to prevail and prove to everyone that Mickie James is fat. Wasn't that what was really on the line here? Striker actually called Mickie "zaftig" at one point. Sweet. All I know is that her boobies really wanted to be free from their prison of cloth and wire.

Rating: 5.5/10

Iverson: While we totally forgot to cover this for the preview piece, it should be noted that we were kinda looking forward to this women's match. Being that it was one-on-one instead of the usual all heel females against all face females makes this a match that I can get behind. With a sufficient (but shallow) story leading into the match, we had more reason to care about the action than in many of the others matches on this PPV. Plus, the action was intense and athletic, and didn't look forced unlike pretty much everything did so far in this show. While it might have been nice to give Mickie the win, it is fine by me to give the W to McCool as she has proven herself to be one of the most entertaining wrestlers in the entire WWE locker room.